


In Foreign Tongues (Been All Over You)

by Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling)



Category: Star Trek (2009), Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alien Culture, Character of Color, Cultural Differences, Dubious Consent, F/F, Remix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-29
Updated: 2011-04-29
Packaged: 2017-10-18 19:01:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/192198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edenfalling/pseuds/Elizabeth%20Culmer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nyota offered herself as Gaila's sister when they first met -- she greeted Gaila with her name in all openness, the traditional overture to the creation of an in-net -- and Gaila has never regretted accepting that gift.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Foreign Tongues (Been All Over You)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MelayneSeahawk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelayneSeahawk/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Talented Tongue](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/3122) by MelayneSeahawk. 



> "In Foreign Tongues (Been All Over You)" is what I wrote so I wouldn't write the epic novel of Gaila's life from her childhood on Orion Prime, through her escape with the rest of her tech gang and various out-net relations, to the campaign she and her free House lead to establish a free colony on a previously uninhabited world in the Orion Congeries, and defend themselves from the slave-based majority culture of their people. That story, while fascinating, wasn't really a remix of MelayneSeahawk's scorching hot fic.
> 
> I have labeled this story dub-con because while Gaila interprets Uhura's physical reactions as consent and Uhura doesn't verbally object, that's not my understanding of how consent works in real life.

Part of being a good sister is learning to read your House siblings' bodies, to know what they need when they can't or won't put things into words. Gaila isn't the best at this -- there's a reason the taskmakers sent her to train with a tech gang instead of assigning her to a high House entourage or any other profession that deals more with people than machines -- but almost any human can read people better than the most perceptive Terran. And every network runs better when siblings work out the tangles and take care of each other's needs.

Nyota offered herself as Gaila's sister when they first met -- she greeted Gaila with her name in all openness, the traditional overture to the creation of an in-net -- and Gaila has never regretted accepting that gift. Humans weren't made to be alone. Gaila was a fingertip away from giving up before her first semester ended, starved for the scent and touch of her own species, let alone the emotional comfort of her in-net and House. Even the shame of admitting failure to her House mothers wasn't enough to make her persevere.

Nyota was enough. Just barely at first -- she wasn't human, hadn't learned from birth onward how to create and negotiate networks and ties -- but she did her best to listen when Gaila needed to talk, to touch her hands or arms when Gaila needed skin on skin, to teach her the nuances of the Federation's alien ways, and to watch her back when Gaila inevitably tripped over some new cultural gap.

Nyota saved Gaila. Gaila can't do anything that dramatic in return -- Nyota doesn't need saving -- but she helps where and when she can. Little things. Like this:

Nyota comes back from classes one afternoon strung tight with tension, mind racing halfway to light speed, wound up with want she'd never name. Gaila gives it two weeks before Nyota caves and admits she's halfway in lust with Commander Spock, the Vulcan who teaches her phonology class, and another two months before she might get around to _doing_ something about that desire. She won't do anything to take the edge off in the meantime, either, not even with Shirsar, the thin Andorian from Nyota's Advanced Romulan class who asked Gaila yesterday to put in a good word for him in preparation for asking Nyota out for coffee. Nyota enslaves her body to Terran ideals of love and commitment.

In-nets are built on love and commitment. So Gaila takes care of Nyota like family should.

Nyota is standing next to her bed, frowning at something on her padd, when Gaila walks over and pulls the padd from her sister's hands. "Hey there, don't frown," Gaila says. "What did that poor computer ever do to you?"

"I have fifty pages of reading for early Federation history, a statistical analysis problem set, and a Romulan oral examination tomorrow that I'm going to fail if I don't--" Nyota starts, but Gaila taps her finger over Nyota's mouth and pushes her down to the bed with her other hand, cupping Nyota's angular shoulder like it's made of sugar glass.

"Shhh," Gaila tells her. "Relax."

She sinks to her knees, trailing her hands down Nyota's sides until she reaches the hem of her uniform skirt and finger-walks her way up under the fabric. Plain white panties, as usual. Some people dress up to give themselves confidence, or just because it's fun, but Nyota gets her confidence from practicality and prefers endurance over decoration.

Gaila approves of practicality, but someday she'd like to find Nyota in something made of silk or lace, something hideously expensive and barely there, that she could literally tear off Nyota's body. Nyota's reaction to the glorious _waste_ would be delicious. But knowing that she can touch Nyota and it's just the way things are, that Nyota won't change anything because of her -- that's delicious too. Nyota treats Gaila like a human sister, not a Terran lover. It's a little taste of home.

Gaila pulls the white cotton down slow and easy, dragging her hands along the backs of Nyota's thighs like vines along the fertile earth. Nyota has gone still above her, breath heavy and harsh with no words to break the silence. Against the far wall, Gaila's computer beeps to announce her program has finished compiling, but she ignores it. Computers will wait. Nyota won't.

"Shhh," Gaila says again as Nyota shivers and clutches the sheets. Her panties drop down to her ankles, leaving her knees and thighs free to splay wide as Gaila knee-walks forward, bunching Nyota's skirt back as she goes until light drives away the shadows and she can see Nyota waiting for her.

Gaila leans in and breathes, rolling Nyota's scent over her tongue. The bitter traces of urine, the acrid salt of nervous sweat, and overpowering them both, the thick, musty odor of female Terran desire. Nyota wants this. Her body tells the truth she never speaks in words.

Gaila slips two fingers between Nyota's outer lips, pushing aside the loose skin and hair to reveal her inner folds. Then she presses up close and licks, one broad stroke from vagina to clit.

Nyota shakes, starts to moan, but bites back the sound. It doesn't matter. Gaila can smell her reaction.

She slides her fingers into Nyota's vagina, just the tips at first, pushing in and pulling out, a little deeper each stroke. She presses her tongue against Nyota's clit. That's good -- Nyota clutches harder on the edge of her bed -- but not enough. Gaila points her tongue and traces tiny circles, around and around without ever quite touching the center where Nyota is most sensitive. Inside Nyota's vagina, she curls her fingers and twists her hand, spiraling back and forth as she thrusts.

Nyota is shivering, holding the bed like she might melt and fall off any second.

Gaila curls her tongue into a hollow tube and _blows_ , aims a narrow stream of air right onto Nyota's clit.

Nyota unlocks, body and mind crashing down like pent-up water breaching a hole in a dam, realigning into more natural patterns.

Gaila licks her through the orgasm and aftershocks, swallowing the sticky discharge from Nyota's vagina. It's a heavy, earthy flavor, different from how human women taste but no less interesting. It suits Nyota, Gaila thinks, and she takes a moment to wonder what Nyota would think of her own scents and flavors, if her sister ever reciprocated. Human body scents can cause strange reactions in Terrans, but Starfleet makes Gaila take synthetic hormones to reduce them and Nyota should be used to Gaila by now anyway.

It's an idle speculation, though. Terrans don't organize their world into Houses and networks, and they don't understand what it means to make someone into family -- not even Nyota, with all her gifts at interspecies communication. Gaila is perfectly happy to get most of her physical needs filled elsewhere. Sex is only sex, after all, and she can make allowances for Nyota's alien ways like Nyota makes allowances for her.

Gaila licks the last residue from her lips and grins before wiping her face on the sheet beside Nyota's thigh. The tension is gone from Nyota's body and scent. She'll be able to concentrate on her homework now.

And speaking of assignments, Gaila has work of her own she should get back to. "Do you ever wonder if your professors are insane?" she asks rhetorically as she stands and walks over to her computer. "I mean, trying to write a starship autopilot program from scratch is useful practice, but you'd think we'd be given specs that match actually Federation ships. What's the use of trying to program an autopilot for a Romulan Bird of Prey when we don't have accurate design specs for that ship class? Even if we _did_ end up capturing one, who'd be able to read the controls?"

Behind her, Nyota tidies her clothes, picks up her discarded padd and says, "I could."

"Oh, yeah, of course. You translate, I fix. This is why we have to make sure we're posted to the same ship," Gaila says. "We're a good fit." And it's bad enough she had to leave the rest of her in-net behind when she joined Starfleet. If she has to leave her new sister behind as well...

Gaila shakes her head and sets her code to run on a virtual machine. The problems -- and there are always problems, no matter how carefully anyone writes code -- will only come clear when something breaks. Across the room, Nyota taps her stylus against her padd and begins murmuring under her breath, practicing her Romulan for the exam. Her fierce concentration shines through her face and posture, every last part of her proclaiming her strength and intelligence.

"You're going to ace your exam," Gaila tells her.

"I know," Nyota says with a smile.

Gaila grins down at her computer screen. She only gives Nyota little things, nothing like what Nyota does for her, but little things matter. You build an in-net one day at a time, laying threads of love and commitment until only death can break the ties.

She's not quite there yet with Nyota, but their skills and temperaments complement each other well. Unless one of them does something unforgiveable, it's only a question of time, and Gaila is going to make sure nothing goes wrong.

Nyota will never regret her offer.

**Author's Note:**

> If you are interested in my thoughts on remixing this story, they are available [here on my journal](http://edenfalling.livejournal.com/528522.html). I also wrote [While We Live](http://edenfalling.livejournal.com/529383.html), a story stitched together from fragments that sketchily outline Gaila's life from childhood through meeting Uhura -- in other words, a hideously compressed version of what would be the first third of the epic novel I managed not to write -- which explains some of the world-building on which "In Foreign Tongues (Been All Over You)" is based.
> 
> ALSO! [This story has been podficced](http://archiveofourown.org/works/460635) by [Dr_Fumbles_McStupid](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Dr_Fumbles_McStupid/pseuds/Dr_Fumbles_McStupid). Go listen and tell her she's awesome. :-)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic of] In Foreign Tongues (Been All Over You)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/460635) by [Dr_Fumbles_McStupid](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dr_Fumbles_McStupid/pseuds/Dr_Fumbles_McStupid)




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